All, the CMA is a national organization made up of small shops that serves this purpose quite well. We currently have a well organized Midwest Chapter where we have regular meetings and tours. in the last year we've been to 4 different shops, A solid wood dimension plant, The Hafele showroom and WalzCraft in LaCrosse.
The CMA is highly beneficial to members and I really feel that any small cabinet shop would do well to join.
Joe, we've already set up a CMA group here on Sawdust Soup, and we encourage you and other CMA members to join it and use it as yet another tool to foster the great networking work the CMA does. It already includes a link back to the CMA website, so it can serve as another recruiting tool for you. As a life member and one of the founders of the CMA, I encourage every small shop to join. That said, if some other folks would like to launch a Midwest group (or any other regional group) here on Sawdust Soup, more power to them. It's free and just takes a few clicks.
I'm in northern Colorado, about halfway between Denver and Cheyenne. There are very few opportunities to "network" face-to-face, almost all of my "peer interaction" comes from various online forums.
Please INVITE your co-workers and other woodworkers to join your network.
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